I know you hurt, but stay strong
by Krinkle
Summary: Abby goes through a crisis, and Gibbs is the only one there to really help her through it. Mentions of rape, so rated M to be safe.


**I'm paying 3 pounds right now just because I love you all, I'm in Positano, and paying for the interwebs while on vacation, using a story I typed up completely using text messages. I have no life I'm aware. I'm also sorry for such a bad plot line, but it was bugging me, so here we go. Please review, also please ignore any spelling mistakes/ punctuation… phone keyboards make it difficult to write 2,500 word documents for my lovely fans. Now I'm sitting on the street about to get hit by crazy Italian drivers.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, sorry for any of those who just got their dreams crushed by that… oh wait, that was my own dream. **

**Love always, Kendall Elizabeth**

Abby walked into her lab on Tuesday wearing her long chain Tripp pants, and a big Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie. Gibbs automatically knew something was wrong, but he wasn't sure what it was.

When the day was over, Gibbs waited for Abby to come up, because he didn't really get the opportunity to talk to her that day, he brought her CafPows throughout the day, but there was always someone else needing their attention. First Vance, then Tony, and finally Ducky. By 7:00 he still hadn't seen her leave, he was hoping to catch her coming out but he hadn't.

He was down in her lab checking on her in less than 3 minutes. He saw Abby in her office area doing something with her leg so he went in to see.

Her pants were around her ankles, and she was trying to stitch and clean up a huge cut that was on her upper thigh.

"Abbs what did you do? Why are you cleaning it by yourself? What happened?" Gibbs asked worriedly. When she lifted her head her cheeks were stained black from her make up being destroyed by her tears. She didn't say anything and continued working on the wound. Gibbs saw pain in her eyes, but it wasn't from her self-surgery.

Gibbs reached over to her hands and removed the surgical needle and thread from her hands and decided if she wasn't going to go to Ducky there damn well was a good reason. He finished up the stitches for her and closed it off. He removed the equipment from the bench and sat down next to her.

She still hadn't lifted her head at this point, so Jethro wrapped his arms around her but he saw her wince. This time it was from physical and emotional pain. He made her lean over, and he slowly lifted the back of her shirt, there were bruises coloring her back and more deep cuts.

He softly ran his hand over her back lightly and reached for the surgical things again.

Once he stitched up the wounds on her back, he looked at her again. He knew something was very wrong, he knew someone hurt her, but how bad?

"Abs... C'mere, I need to check the rest of your body. I'm taking you back to my house, I'll protect you, I promise." he gently put his hand on her back, and tried to escort her out of the room.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" it was the first thing she had said to him all day, and he would be lying if he didn't say it stung.

"Abs, calm down, it's just me. You know I would protect from anything, and I would never hurt you. It's okay now."

"He raped me Gibbs." She whispered so quietly he wouldn't be sure of what she said if he didn't know any better. "He defeated me. I'm worthless and dirty."

"you are far from worthless or defeated. I'm so sorry Abby. I am going to help you as much as I can. Let's go home, we will talk about it more later when you want to." His normally hardened marine shell was broken by her confession. He was close to crying for her.

Once they wordlessly arrived back at Gibbs' place, he gave her a towel and she went up to the shower.

While Abby was trying to scrub off all of the reminders of what was, dried blood was pooling at the bottom of the shower. She started crying again, tormenting herself with what happened, and how she should've prevented it.

At some point she completely shut off her working mind and just sat in the bottom of the shower crying. The water turned cold after a good hour, but she didn't move any. Gibbs knew he had to go help her when it had been more than a hour, so he decided he was going to have to go in. He opened the bathroom door and she was curled up, naked, in his shower.

"Jeez, Abby..." Modesty put aside, Gibbs leaned over and carried her out of the almost freezing shower. With her naked, Gibbs could see all of the damage that bastard did to his girl. You could see actual abrasions from the guys fingers gripping her hips so hard. He wrapped her up in the towel and carried her out of the bathroom into his bedroom.

He went into the guest bedroom and pulled out some of the clothes she kept at his house. He brought back in her bra, underwear, and baggy sweatpants. That's what she preferred to wear when she was at his house. He didn't care too much about the fact that the woman he had been in love with for a good 5 plus years would walk around his house shirtless. Today there was a different reason he didn't bring her a shirt. He went into his bathroom and took gauze and antibacterial ointment that he had from injuries from the past.

"Abbs, put your underwear and bra on, we need to wrap up all of these cuts."

She slowly began functioning again, and slipped on her under garments, she didn't really care if Gibbs saw her naked, she loved him, and trusted him, she was not worried about him doing something rash.

He applied antibiotic ointment to her leg first, and wrapped it tightly with the gauze. He then did the same for her back, when he was done wrapping it, her torso was almost fully covered by gauze, you could only see her left shoulder and the top of her cross. He handed her a old ratty NCIS sweatshirt, but instead of taking it, she pushed him back onto the bed and laid her head on his chest.

She decided she didn't like the obstruction made by his shirt, so she tried to move it away, when he started to resist, she said "don't worry, I just want to feel your skin against mine." He removed his shirt for her so she wouldn't tear any of her stitches. They laid back again and Abby went to sleep while Gibbs replayed the last few hours in his head, while he stroked her hair. God he loved this woman.

When Abby woke up she at first looked around in a frenzy not recognizing where she was. When she realized where she was, she once again looked around in search of Gibbs. She went to stand up, but her body began to ache. Then everything hit her once again, she started to cry again. Jethro rushed in as soon as he heard her.

"Abbs, sweetheart, it's going to get better. Let's talk about this please? I need to catch this son of a bitch and lock him up. Please, Abby, talk to me." he said while he soothingly rubbed her back and let her cry into his shirt.

"I don't know where to start..."

"wherever you want to. How about what you were doing before all of this happened?" he suggested.

She took a deep breath and started her story," I was at the new club, Azucare, with my friends Marisa, and Sarah. At about 1:00 in the morning I decided I should get some rest because I had work the next day. Sarah drove Marisa and Jake home, since she doesn't drink, and she was going to end up hooking up with Jake. I also drove home since I only had one drink there. I had met a guy, he said his name was John. He danced with me and followed me around all night. I found this strange because he looked like a high class businessman, but just because he had silver hair didn't mean he was my silver-haired fox. I woke up around 4 this morning, and he was standing at the foot of my bed with a switchblade. He told me he fell in love with me, and he wanted me all to himself. If I resisted him..." she started to choke up and tears pooled in her eyes," he would cut me. He saw I was scared, which turned him on more. It hurt so bad Gibbs... So much pain."

Gibbs had heard enough, the marine had been brought to tears, he dragged her into his grasp and held her close. "Abby, I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry... I will kill this man with my bare hands." He kissed her forehead and kept her close until they both fell asleep again.

"Gibbs... Jethro... Wake up." Abby said while shaking him.

"hmm?" He mumbled half asleep.

"weren't we supposed to be at work?"

"No, I called in Vance, and told him that we had to deal with a family crisis. Since we never take days off he said that was fine, take as long as we need."

"thank you", she whispered.

"Hey, look at me," he lifted her chin up towards him,"I love you, and I mean it. I am planning on making this man's life hell."

Something switched in Abby, because for the slightest moment, she was back to her normal self for a bit. She smiled genuinely for the first time since he had seen her like this.

"How do you love me, Jethro?" Her eyes were bright as she looked up at him.

Gibbs was silent for a while,"Like I shouldn't. Like I never loved before. Like I'm in love with you." when he said that Abby straddled him and started kissing him in fury. Her hands roamed his chest, while he kept his planted on her hips.

Then something happened, she froze, and started to heave.

"Abby? What's wrong? What did I do?" Gibbs asked, concern covering his face.

"I just flashed back to what happened... I'm sorry, I can't do this right now." she looked away, embarrassed.

"I know Abby, I'm not going to force you to do anything."

"I love you too, but that fucking John Hopt, he ruined me."

"I'm going to the station tomorrow, IDing him, and destroying his life. You're not ruined, you just need time, beautiful."

"Gibbs... Does this mean we are dating now?"

"If you want that."

"I would love that. What about rule 12?"

"you are not my colleague... You're so much more. You are my rock. Now, I am yours."

"should we tell McGee, Tony and Ziva?"

"I think we should keep it a secret, since they're trying to keep their relationship a secret. Though it's so obvious. But I swear to god, if Tony gets her pregnant, I will head slap him to hell... At least for the next year or so."

"You don't care, that they are together...?"

"No, because they have been in love for the past 2 years. At this point I don't think it will affect their in field work. I think it might actually make their work better. I'm hungry? You want to go out to eat?"

"sure... Let's go get Thai food... That place down on Holstead?"

Okay... Let me first grab my stuff." He grabbed his badge and gun and changed into jeans and a button down. Abby watched him hungrily out of the corner of her eye.

Once Abby took a shower and put on her regular make up, she grabbed one of Jethro's button downs, and put it on over her black Tripp skinny jeans. Still not totally Abby style yet, but getting closer.

"I like this button down Gibbs! You should wear it more often... It's black, we could match!"

"Anything for you." He said with a smirk.

"hey come here for a second before we leave..." when he turned around she lovingly kissed him, and then whispered "I love you."

He signed I love you too back to her, and they walked out of his house into his car.

When they got to the restaurant, Abby picked out a outside table while Gibbs ordered them both Pad Thai. Once they finished eating Abby froze.

She quickly signed to Gibbs, _'John is at the table behind us.'_

His eyes hardened, but he still asked_, 'are you sure?'_ her response was to nod and mention that she scratched his left cheek with her nail while fighting him.

As if John had heard this whole conversation, he whipped around and looked directly at Abby. "you are supposed to be dead Abigail Scuito." he said cooly. "And who the hell is this? Another person for you to slut yourself to?"

"I suggest you back off right now sir."

"Or what?" To show his cockiness, he stood up and took the switchblade out of his pocket. "You going to protect her with your life and soul?"

"No, I'm going to protect her with my gun." When Gibbs said that he pulled out his sig, and took a shot into John's femur, and one in his lower arm.

He called in back up from Tony, and they took him down to the station.

"Abby, you're okay now. He can never hurt you. And I will never hurt you." to prove his point, Jethro began to kiss her, but he pulled away because they needed to put clean bandages on her.

-1 month later-

"Wake up, Abby! We are going to get your new tattoos today."

Abby jumped out of Gibbs and her bed and took a quick shower. She quickly changed into her favourite skirt and tank top, slipping into her combat boots with ease she hurried Gibbs to get on his clothes faster. He came out wearing her favourite black button down of his.

When Abby walked out of the tattoo parlor she was elated, she had huge fallen angel wings that wrapped around her back and thighs. It took a lot of money, and time, but it was completely worth it.

Inscribed inside one of the wings, the words were no larger than a quarter, but they said, 'you will never bring me down or defeat me.'. The tattoo covered the scars she had received due to the switchblade.

Gibbs got NCIS tattooed into his neck, but it was a black light tattoo so you couldn't see it in regular light.

"I love you, Abby Scuito." Gibbs said as he twined his hand with hers.

"I love you too, Jethro."


End file.
